Our Catlzolic Heritage in Texas
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constantly visited the scattered rancherf.as to minister to the sick and to persuade the more obstinate natives to come to the missions. 59 The Presidio of Nuestra Senora del Pilar de los Adaes, so carefully delineated by Aguayo and built with a competent stockade, had suffered a fate similar to that at La Bahia. The frequent rains had rotted the logs, and the soldiers' habitation was in such poor condition that it had to be rebuilt. Some time in 1725, Governor Almazan, whose health had been undermined by the unsanitary climate and the many hardships he had undergone since_he assumed the governorship, decided to appoint Don Melchor de Mediavilla y Azcona his Lieutenant Governor and to station him at Los Adaes, with the approval of the viceroy. The pending negoti- ations with the Apaches and the urgent need of supplies, added to the removal of Captain Flores, had necessitated the almost permanent resi- dence of Almazan in San Antonio. Thus it fell to Mediavilla y Azcona to restore the fort at Los Adaes. By July, x726, he reported that the entire stockade had been replaced and the military living quarters rebuilt of timber. 60 It is of interest to note at this point the growth of the settlement around the Presidio of San Antonio de Bejar. In 1726, there were forty- five soldiers who garrisoned the fort, the remaining nine being regularly assigned to guard the missions or escort supply trains. In addition, there were four vecinos, or settlers. In a letter of Almazan to the viceroy, he declared that these persons, together with their respective families num- bered over two hundred souls, including men, women, and children, who were living in the vicinity of the presidio. Because Father Fray Miguel Sevillano, President of the Missions of Queretaro, who resided in San Antonio de Valero, refused to send a missionary on feast days to cele- brate the Holy Sacrifice in the presidia! chapel, all of them were being deprived of hearing Mass. The governor explained that there was no reason for the Padre's refusal, because there were two missionaries at Valero, besides a lay brother, and the distance from the mission to the presidio was very short. 61 When the matter was reported to the viceroy and turned over to the Auditor, he was so shocked at such a state of affairs that he recommended, in the strongest terms, that the Commissary General of the Franciscans be 59Aguayo to Margi!, July 4, 1724; Espinosa, Clm5nica, I, 457-477. 60Govemor Almazan to the Viceroy, July 4, 1726. A. G. N., Proviflcias /nter- nas, Vol. 236 (Bolton Transcripts). 61/bid.
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